INDIAN RED CROSS SOCIETY
DISASTER MENTAL HEALTH AND PSYCHOSOCIAL CARE
THE TRAINING MODEL
Dr. Joseph O. Prewitt Díaz
Psychosocial Delegate
American Red Cross
One of the objectives of the American Red Cross
strategy in providing technical and financial support to the Indian Red Cross
Society is to conduct staff development activities in all sectors of the
Society: National HQ, State Branches, and Local Branches. In the target local Branches, villages
and schools will be targeted for direct services. Teachers and community
facilitators will be trained via thematic units focusing on group development,
community based disaster mental health preparation, publicizing mental health
and psychosocial care programs, and skills necessary to promote proactive behaviors.
To
achieve the training objective of the Workplan, three distinct groups will be
prepared: (1) crisis intervention professionals, (2) crisis intervention
specialists, and (3) crisis intervention technicians.
Crisis
Intervention Professionals
The
first group, crisis intervention professionals, is individuals who have a
background in mental health or disaster preparedness, response, or management.
They will be assigned to the Disaster Management Center (DMC) of the Indian Red
Cross Society, and will commit 500 hours of volunteer time after completing the
program of study. The pre-requisite to participate in this program is a
Master’s degree or higher and/or equivalent experience in disaster related
activities.
The
role of the professionals will be to:
1. Advice the DMC staff on matters of Disaster Mental
Health before, during and after a disaster.
2. To conduct or coordinate the development and execution
of a rapid needs assessment in the affected geographical area.
3. To call out other mental health professionals,
organize DMH teams and coordinate teams in the field from the DMC to provide
timely service to the affected geographical area.
4. Prepare, conduct, and disseminate training activities,
education, and public information activities pertaining to Disaster Mental
Health.
5. Coordinate DMH services to the affected community with
GO’s and NGO’s.
6. Other activities as assigned by the DMC Director.
To perform these tasks, the candidate will complete a
course of study composed of eight (8) courses. These courses will require (1)
classroom activities, (2) small group activities, and (3) a fieldwork activity.
To complete the course a final project will be conducted by each candidate
under the supervision of a faculty member and prior approval from the IRCS. The following are the suggested
courses:
1.
Introduction to the Red Cross movement. (16 hours). The ICRC, the IFRC, and the IRCS. The
Geneva Convention, the Seville Agreement and other pertinent information
regarding the movement. The SPHERE
Indicators and the WHO guidelines for psychological care will be discussed. It
is expected that the candidate will have the basic knowledge required by a Red
Cross volunteer and will be able to be inducted as a volunteer into the IRCS.
2.
Disaster Preparedness and Response. (45 hours) This course introduces crisis
intervention professionals to decisions and actions required at the disaster
site by local, state, and NHQ involved in disaster relief and reconstruction.
This module is designed to increase the audiences’ awareness of the nature and
management of disasters, leading to better performance in disaster preparedness
and response. By understanding the crisis intervention professional role, we
can describe a coherent and cohesive direction for people who are involved in
the field of crisis intervention during disaster.
3.
Rehabilitation to Reconstruction: From Disaster Mental
Health to Psychological Care. (45
hours). The training module
illustrates the key principles and strategies for effective rehabilitation and
reconstruction after a disaster.
It highlights the constraints and opportunities provided by these stages
of recovery from impact of damaging events. It provides the crisis intervention
professional will understand the linkages between the various stages of the
psychological response in each of the phases within the disaster continuum.
4.
Management of Disaster Mental Health/Psychosocial care
in the DMC and the target geographical area. (45 hours). This course will introduce
the concept of disaster management to the crisis intervention professionals.
The training process is designed to increase the awareness of the nature and
management of mental health and psychosocial health care during a disaster. The
participant will understand the nature and procedures of administrative crisis
intervention in the wake of disasters involving several specific operations,
such as: communicating with other
health and social services, coordinating, planning, monitoring and effective
delivery of mental health and psychosocial care to several affected sites at
the same time.
5.
Principles of Disaster Mental Health and psychosocial
care. (45 hours). Mental Health services have a vital role to play in the
coordinated response to disaster in the community. A considerable body of
scientific research is now available to guide the formulation the appropriate
mental health and psychosocial care responses and help in the identification of
those who may require on-going support. This course is designed to explore the
existent body of scientific research and to identify principles that are
applicable to India.
6.
Physiology, psychology, and management of Stress. (45 hours). This course is designed to teach
techniques that prevent and mitigate the psychological dysfunction which
exposure to traumatic situation like disasters may cause in the survivors and
first responders. It seeks to develop strategies that will provide persons with
the knowledge and skills to better understand, recognize, and manage their
emotional responses to traumatic situations.
7.
Stress mitigation in the schools and communities (45 hours). The learner will comprehend the four
strategies for stress mitigation in schools and communities: training of
indigenous personnel and teachers, disaster preparedness and strategies for
stress management, how to utilize media to deliver messages related to stress
management, and care activities in the community. The method to provide
teachers and other school personnel with techniques that will assist in the
promotion, organization, development and evaluation of stress mitigation plans
in educational centers.
8.
Crisis, crisis intervention and psychological first
aid (45 hours). The course will begin with a
discussion of the three forms of prevention (reduce the incidence of disorders;
minimize the harmful effects of events that have already occurred, repair
damage long after its original onset). Secondly, the course will help the
learner to name the basic strategies in crisis intervention: enhancement and
treatment strategies. Thirdly, the learner will learn to re-establish immediate
coping by utilizing strategies of psychological first aid.
At
the conclusion of the course of study and the completion of the 500 volunteer
hours of service, the candidate will receive a Certificate as a Crisis
Intervention Professional.
Crisis
Intervention Specialists
The crisis intervention specialist will be prepared at
the State level. In each target State there will be about 35 specialists
trained. These individuals will be
assigned to the State Branch of the IRCS and will commit three (300) hours of
service. In the preparedness phase, the specialist will provide education about
stress mitigation to the schools and community. During a disaster they will be
responsible for the organization of the immediate response teams. They will
coordinate immediate crisis intervention and psychological first aid activities
to the survivors and emotional support activities for the first responders. The
pre-requisite for participation in this program is an advanced degree in education
or social work and/or experience in disaster preparedness and response.
The role of the crisis intervention specialist will be
to:
1.
Advice the State Branch
staff on matters pertaining to disaster mental health and psychosocial care.
2.
Generate a list of mental
health professionals and volunteers in the community and develop a call-out
system.
3.
Provide disaster mental
health and psychosocial care education to the Technicians in the Branch level,
teachers, aanganwadi workers, and village members.
4.
Generate a vulnerability
map of all the target villages, in conjunction with local Branches,
participating communities and schools.
5.
Responsible for quarterly
simulations of DMH/PC response in the target villages and schools.
6.
Develop knowledge of
instructional methodology appropriate to adults in the local Branches and the
target villages.
7.
Provide technical
assistance in development public relations activities that highlight mental
health for the communities and villages.
To
perform these tasks the candidate will complete a 15-day program of study
consisting of five modules:
1. The ICRC, IFRC, and the IRCS.
a. The Fundamental Principles
b. The Seville Accord
c. WHO standards of response
d. SPHERE minimum indicators of service.
2. Elements of community development.
a. Importance of community development in stress
mitigation
b. Situational leadership
c. Communication skills.
d. Verbal and non-verbal behavior
3. Disaster preparedness, response and disaster mental
health/psychosocial care.
a. Disaster preparedness and response
b. Diagnosing the community strengths and needs through
mapping
c. Triage and Rapid Needs Assessment (WHO Rapid
Assessment of Mental health needs; WHO Mental health check list of frequent
complaints in emergencies; Composite International Diagnostic Interview)
4. Promoting disaster mental health and psychosocial care
in the villages and schools.
a. Fundamentals of Instruction to support and implement
the DMH/PC program in schools and villages.
b. Developing community awareness campaigns
c. Approaching the press (print, TV, radio).
5. Stress mitigation in the community and schools
a. Psychological first aid
b. Crisis intervention
c. Stress management, relaxation exercises, and other
self-care activities.
d. Using community metaphors to encourage communication
e. Visualization and affirmations
f. Returning to emotional wellness after a disaster.
At the conclusion of the course of study and the
completion of the 300 volunteer hours of service, the candidate will receive a
Certificate as a Crisis Intervention Specialist.
Crisis
Intervention Technician
The
crisis intervention technician will become volunteers of the local Branch of
the Indian Red Cross Society. This
group of individuals will be trained at the State level. This group will be responsible for
developing preparedness, stress mitigation, and recovery activities in selected
villages and schools. The
background of the participants will be that they are local Branch IRCS
volunteers, aanganwadis workers, teachers and others in the community with
disaster response experience.
The
technicians will be expected to:
1.
Respond through the local
Branch to provide Psychological First Aid if needed after a disaster.
2.
Conduct Rapid Needs
Assessment in target villages in the event of a disaster.
3.
Organize preparedness,
stress mitigation and response activities in the schools and villages.
4.
Review and prepare
existing materials to publicize disaster mental health and psychosocial care.
5.
Encourage social
networking through stress management activities in the community.
6.
Develop community resource
centers with support of the Crisis Intervention Specialists.
To perform these tasks the candidate will participate
in an 80-hour program of study to be completed in eight days. The program will
consist of the following units:
1.
Introduction to the ICRC, IFRC, and the IRCS.
a. The Seville Agreement
b. SPHERE indicators
2. Disaster mental health to psychosocial
care
3. Psychological First Aid, crisis
intervention, information, education and
referral.
4. What is a Rapid Needs Assessment and
how do to use the tool
a.
WHO Rapid Needs Assessment Tool
b.
WHO checklist for frequent complaints in emergencies
b.
ARC Rapid Needs Assessment Tool
5. The community facilitator as an agent
of change
a.
Organizing the community
b.
Assessment of community needs and protective factors as they
relate to disaster mental health and psychosocial care.
c.
Promoting Mental Health and psychosocial care thought the
media.
d. Mental Health preventive and care activities
6. The teacher as the Stress
reduction manager in the schools.
a. Assess needs and protective factors in the school
as they relate
to mental health and psychosocial care.
b.
Develop an emergency response plan that includes feasible
strategies to address risk situations in
the educational center.
c.
Organize groups composed of teachers, children, and other school
personnel and parents that will
design a strategy of response
to a possible situation of
emergency.
d.
Conduct simulations to test knowledge, skills and abilities
of self-care, and the appropriate use of
materials and
equipment.
7. Elements in developing a community
resource center that will foster
community reunification and networking.
The participant will receive a certificate as a Crisis
Intervention Technician after completing the academic requirements, the
practical experiences and 200 hours of volunteer services.
In the following years there will be promotion from
within the ranks so that a technician may qualify to participate in the
specialist course of study, and the specialist may qualify to participate in
the professional course of study.
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